This is the result of single payer or nationalised systems where private healthcare is not allowed.

So in systems like the UK, you can walk into a clinic for an MRI, you just have to pay privately for that access, usually covered if you have additional medical insurance. If you want the procedure though nationalised healthcare (NHS), there is a wait.

Health insurance is relatively cheap in the UK compared to the US. A lot of frontline care is done via the NHS contracts with the GPs and the A&E service at the NHS hospitals.